The Marble Faun Volume 1 - Page 99/130

"Let us settle it," said Kenyon, stamping his foot firmly down, "that

this is precisely the spot where the chasm opened, into which Curtius

precipitated his good steed and himself. Imagine the great, dusky gap,

impenetrably deep, and with half-shaped monsters and hideous faces

looming upward out of it, to the vast affright of the good citizens who

peeped over the brim! There, now, is a subject, hitherto unthought of,

for a grim and ghastly story, and, methinks, with a moral as deep as

the gulf itself. Within it, beyond a question, there were prophetic

visions,--intimations of all the future calamities of Rome,--shades of

Goths, and Gauls, and even of the French soldiers of to-day. It was a

pity to close it up so soon! I would give much for a peep into such a

chasm."

"I fancy," remarked Miriam, "that every person takes a peep into it

in moments of gloom and despondency; that is to say, in his moments of

deepest insight."

"Where is it, then?" asked Hilda. "I never peeped into it."

"Wait, and it will open for you," replied her friend. "The chasm was

merely one of the orifices of that pit of blackness that lies beneath

us, everywhere. The firmest substance of human happiness is but a thin

crust spread over it, with just reality enough to bear up the illusive

stage scenery amid which we tread. It needs no earthquake to open the

chasm. A footstep, a little heavier than ordinary, will serve; and we

must step very daintily, not to break through the crust at any moment.

By and by, we inevitably sink! It was a foolish piece of heroism in

Curtius to precipitate himself there, in advance; for all Rome, you see,

has been swallowed up in that gulf, in spite of him. The Palace of the

Caesars has gone down thither, with a hollow, rumbling sound of its

fragments! All the temples have tumbled into it; and thousands of

statues have been thrown after! All the armies and the triumphs have

marched into the great chasm, with their martial music playing, as they

stepped over the brink. All the heroes, the statesmen, and the poets!

All piled upon poor Curtius, who thought to have saved them all! I am

loath to smile at the self-conceit of that gallant horseman, but cannot

well avoid it."

"It grieves me to hear you speak thus, Miriam," said Hilda, whose

natural and cheerful piety was shocked by her friend's gloomy view of

human destinies. "It seems to me that there is no chasm, nor any hideous

emptiness under our feet, except what the evil within us digs. If there

be such a chasm, let us bridge it over with good thoughts and deeds, and

we shall tread safely to the other side. It was the guilt of Rome, no

doubt, that caused this gulf to open; and Curtius filled it up with his

heroic self-sacrifice and patriotism, which was the best virtue that the

old Romans knew. Every wrong thing makes the gulf deeper; every right

one helps to fill it up. As the evil of Rome was far more than its good,

the whole commonwealth finally sank into it, indeed, but of no original

necessity."